"You were trying to hold a brief for Eleanor."
"So I was. You see, I had an idea that if you'd let me put the case up to you fair and square, maybe you'd see it in a different light."
"Well, that's where you were mistaken."
"How do you know? You haven't listened to me yet!"
Madam glared at him grimly.
"Go ahead," he said. "Get it out of your system."
"Well, it's like this," Quin plunged into his subject. "Next July Miss Nell will be of age and have her own money to do as she likes with, won't she?"
"She won't have much," interpolated Madam. "Twenty thousand won't take her far."
"It will take her to New York and let her live pretty fine for two or three years. Everybody will cotton up to her and flatter her and make her think she's a second Julia Marlowe, and meantime they'll be helping her spend her money. Now, my plan is this. Why don't you give her just barely enough to live on, and let her try it out on the seamy side for the next six months? Nobody will know who she is or what's coming to her, and maybe when she comes up against the real thing she won't be so keen about it."
Madam followed him closely, and for a moment it looked as if the common sense of his argument appealed to her. Then her face set like a vise.